Kamala Harris put Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative US presidential debate with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in a closely fought election campaign.

A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president’s skin with a series of sharp attacks, prompting a visibly angry Trump to deliver a stream of falsehood-filled retorts.

At one point, she brought up Trump’s campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”

Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris’ crowds, said: “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”

He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of residents.

“Talk about extreme,” Harris said, laughing.

Harris also criticised Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.

Trump also repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called Harris a “Marxist” and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.

With eight weeks to go before the November 5 election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate – the only one scheduled – presented both opportunities and risks for each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.

The candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that polls show favours Trump.

Harris attacked Trump’s intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods – a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class – while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.

“Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” Harris said, referring to his years as president from 2017-2021.

Unemployment peaked at 14.8 per cent in April 2020 and at 6.4 per cent when he left office. It was far higher in the Great Depression.

Trump criticised Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden administration’s term, though he overstated the level of price increases.

Inflation, he said, “has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class.”

Harris delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the US Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the majority of that ruling.

She also claimed Trump would support a national ban, an assertion Trump called a lie.

Trump, who has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, claimed falsely that Harris and Democrats support infanticide, which – as moderator Linsey Davis noted – is illegal in every state.

“As I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies,” Harris said.

Harris also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.

Trump retorted that he has “nothing to do” with Project 2025, though some of his advisers were involved in its creation.

The candidates also exchanged barbs over the Israel-Gaza war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though neither offered specifics on how they would seek to end each conflict.

WHAT WAS SAID

Some of the key quotes to emerge from presidential debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump during their only scheduled debate before the November 5 election.

ECONOMY

“Look, we’ve had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster” – Trump

“People can’t go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they’ve done. They’ve destroyed the economy” – Trump

“I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy” – Harris

“My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations” – Harris

ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT

“It must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out” – Harris

“She hates Israel. If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now,” said Trump to which Harris responded: “That’s absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people”

WORLD LEADERS

“World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump” – Harris.

“(Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president” – Trump

UKRAINE

“I want the war to stop. I want to save lives,” Trump said, when asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia

“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now” – Harris

JABS

“Wait a minute, I’m talking now, if you don’t mind, please, does that sound familiar?” said Trump, appearing to refer to Harris’ use of “I’m speaking” during the 2020 vice presidential debate against former vice president Mike Pence

“It’s important to remind the former president, you’re not running against Joe Biden, you are running against me” – Harris

“So she just started by saying she’s going to do this, she’s going to do that, she’s going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three-and-a-half years,” – Trump

ABORTION

“I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law” – Harris

“Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. … Now states are voting on it. … Each individual state is voting. It’s the vote of the people. Now it’s not tied up in the federal government” – Trump

IMMIGRATION

“I’ll tell you something, he’s going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it’s not the subject that is being raised” – Harris.

“In Springfield, (immigrants are) eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there” – Trump

TRUTHFULNESS

“As I said, you’re gonna hear a bunch of lies, and that’s not actually a surprising fact” – Harris

“There she goes again. It’s a lie,” said Trump after Harris said he would sign a national abortion ban were he to win office

JOE BIDEN

“Remember this, she is Biden. She’s trying to get away from Biden” – Trump

“Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and certainly not Donald Trump, and what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country” – Harris

GUNS

“She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun” – Trump

“(Democratic Vice Presidential nominee) Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away” – Harris

JANUARY 6, 2021, CAPITOL ATTACK

“I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech” – Trump

“I was at the Capitol. I was the vice president-elect. I was also a senator and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s capital, to desecrate our nation’s capital” – Harris